Wheel support for an engine propelled road vehicle

ABSTRACT

A preassembled wheel support unit having inner and outer annular members with confronting raceways for relative rotation and means for connecting one annular member to the vehicle and the other annular member to the wheel and brake disk. The pitch diameter of the raceways is at least twice the overall axial width of the annular members whereby forces resulting from functioning of the brake are acting at substantially the same diameter and close to forces from the wheel and reaction forces from the vehicle. A drive coupling member is connected to the inner annular member.

Unite States Patent [1 1 Asberg Sept. 11, 1973 WHEEL SUPPORT FOR ANENGINE PROPELLED ROAD VEHICLE [75] Inventor: Sture Lennart Asberg,Savedalen,

Sweden [73] Assignee: SKF lndustriele-En Ontwlkkeling-Maatschappij N.V.,Amsterdam, Netherlands 22 Filed: Feb. 3, 1971 211 'Appl. No.: 112,287

[52] 0.8. CI. 180/70 R, 188/18 A, 280/961, 308/191 [51] Int. Cl B62117/06 [58] Field of Search 280/96.1, 96.3; 301/5 R, 5.7; 188/18 R, 18 A;308/191; I v 180/70 R [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS3,295,626 l/1967 Cadiou 280/963 X Brescia Adams l/197l l/l967 1,982,37711/1934 Duby 280/963 2,370,097 2/1945 Weiss 280/96.l 1,062,472 5/1913Kaye 280/963 3,103,387 9/1963 Saxenberg 30l/5.7 1,975,661 10/1934 Powell30l/5.7 X

Primary Examinerl(enneth l-l. Betts Assistant Examiner-John P.Silverstrim Attorney-Howson and Howson [57] ABSTRACT A preassembledwheel support unit having inner and outer annular members withconfronting raceways for relative rotation and means for connecting oneannular member to the vehicle and the other annular member to the wheeland brake disk. The pitch diameter of the raceways is at least twice theoverall axial width of the annular members whereby forces resulting fromfunctioning of the brake are acting at substantially the same diameterand close to forces from the wheel and reaction forces from the vehicle.A drive coupling member is connected to the inner annular member.

6 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures I PAIENTEDSEH I ma saw 2 or 5 INVENTOR: v-STURE LENNART AsBERG ATTORNEYS PAIENIEDSEPI 1 1915 3.767. 883

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INVENTOR: STURE LENNART ASBERG BY W ATTORNEYS IyVENTOR': STURE LENNARTASBERG ATTORNEYS PMENTEU SEP? 9 E935 WM 5 0F 6 INYENTOR. STURE LENNARTASBE ATTORNEYS PATENTED 3. 757. 883

29a 35 30a 29b 30b36 33 32 IN VEN R: STURE LENNART ASB W BY 7W ATTORNEYSWHEEL SUPPORT FOR AN ENGINE PROPELLED ROAD VEHICLE The present inventionrelates to an engine propelled road vehicle having a wheel supportcomprising an axial radial bearing unit formed by two concentricstructural members, each provided with races and with integralconnecting means for connecting the unit to the wheel on one hand and tothe vehicle on the other hand. From the published older Dutch patentapplications 68.05108 and 68.05109 it is already known to use a wheelbearing unit for the support ofa wheel of an engine propelled roadvehicle. According to said older proposals a unit has been providedwhich is cheap and simply to manufacture and which does away theproblems existing with the traditional wheel supports having a normalball or roller bearing with inner and outer race ring and accuratelymachined seats and the accumulation of tolerances inherent with saidconstruction. Such a unit is connected to the vehicle by means of a fewbolts and the wheel and disc brake are also connected to it by means ofa few bolts.

Although said older proposals relate to an extremely important newdevelopment in the design of wheel supports for motor cars and the like,further developments are possible and the present invention intends, bymaking use of the features of the unit of the prior proposals tosimplify standardization if desired to such an extent that all car typesand all wheels independent of the question whether they are driven ornon-driven, steerable or non-steerable, independently suspended or not,can make use of one and the same wheel support; with only one type tomanufacture the costs of manufacturing will be reduced to an extremelysmall level.

According to the invention this has been achieved in that all wheels ofthe vehicle are supported by a bearing unit which in principle for allwheels has the same inner and outer structural members with in principlethe same integral connecting means, the driven wheels having in additiona coupling secured to the inner rotatable structural member of the unit.The words in principle" do meanthat slight differences between, e.g.,front and rear wheels are permissible. This means that all innerstructural. members of all wheels of the car are the same; the sameholds true for all outer structural members. The connecting means arethe same, which means same diameter and same spacing at the innerstructural member and the same holds true for the outerstructural'member, although diameter and spacing need not to benecessarily the same as for the inner structural member. Important,however, is that in principle the same values for the dimensions arepresent at all the wheel supports for all the wheels.

At the driven wheels an additional member has been attached to the innerrotatable structural member of the unit. Such an additional part isnecessary to transmit the driving torque to the wheels.

If all wheel supports or units of all wheels of one car are the samethey will be the same for all ears of the same type and they can be thesame for all cars of the same size or even a number of sizes. Forinstance all passenger cars whether light or medium could make use ofone single typeof wheel unit, but if required two or three differentsizes of the wheel unit would still form an enormous standardization ofall passenger cars from light to heavy.

It will be clear that the additional coupling to be secured to the innerrotatable member for the driven wheels forms a part which has to bemachined properly. With extremely large series it does not influence theprice whether such a coupling is present or not and this opens thepossibility that according to the invention the vehicle may have at allwheels the same unit. This means that the non-dirven wheels are alsoprovided with a coupling, which coupling is not used, need not to bemachined to its final finish, but nevertheless is present and can bepresent because as rotating inner member for the non-driven wheel itdoes not in any way disturb the functioning of the non-driven wheel.

It is of course well known that there exists normalization with respectto normal ball and roller bearings, having inner and outer race rings.Such bearings are located on seats of a shaft and within a housing andit is normal to calculate which type of bearing has to be used and toadapt the rest of the construction to other parts of the vehicle.

According to the invention the standardization of the unit opens the wayto cheap repair operations, requiring no skill at all, but in particularis in favour of production and store holding.

According to the invention the wheel bearing unit intended to be used inthe vehicle can be characterized in that-said unit comprises twoconcentric members with integral race surfaces for rolling bearingelements, located between said members, each member having a seriesofholes for connecting the member to the wheel and rotating brake parton one hand and to the vehicle and stationary brake part on the otherhand, the holes for the stationary brake part being circumferentiallyspaced from the holes connecting the unit to the vehicle. This meansthat the unit is formed of two annular members having integral racesurfaces, balls or rollers between said annular members and holes insaid annular members for the functions of connecting the unit to thevehicle, connecting'the wheel to it and connecting the rotatingandstationary parts of the brake to it.

According to one preferred embodiment said structural members may beannular members of L-shaped cross section, having holes in both flangesat the same diameter and spacing. In that case, taking into account thatthe function of the bearing is bi-axial and radial it does not matterhow the unit is attached. This may be seen as an advantage but also as adisadvantage since it then is possible to mount the unit for thenon-driven wheel in such a way that not the inner member but the outeris the rotating member. To avoid this it is preferred that the flange ofthe stationary member has additional holes for the attachment of thestationary brake part. Then no mistakes can be made whilst manufacturingremains simple.

For a bi-axial radial bearing all sorts of rolling elements can be used.In its simplest form one row of balls can be used, each ball having twopoint contact in eac race.

For the unit according to the invention it is of great importance to usea large pitch diameter for the hearing such as a diameter which islarger than the axial length of the unit. The rigidity which can beachieved with large pitch diameter of the bearing allows the use of allkinds of material for the structural members such as pressed sheetmetal, light metal, pressed metal pow- 'der and re-inforced syntheticresin. In those cases where no steel is used for the structural membersit will be necessary to use race parts of steel, positioned in thematerial of the structural members.

The invention now will be further elucidated with reference to thedrawings.

FIG. 1 shows in cross section an embodiment of the wheel support unit tobe used in a vehicle according to the invention.

FIG. 2 shows the embodiment of FIG. 1 in perspective.

FIG. 3 shows the construction for a steerable wheel, partly in crosssection.

FIG. 4 shows the embodiment of FIG. 3 in perspective.

FIG. 5 is the same perspective view as FIG. 4 of a slightly differentembodiment.

FIG. 6 shows a different but very simple solution.

FIG. 7a, b and c show different forms of the inner and outer parts ofthe embodiment of FIG. 6.

The wheel support unit of FIGS. 1 and 2 comprises an inner member 1,with a radial flange 2 and an outer member 3 with flange 4. Said flangesare provided with bolt holes 6 and 7 at a common pitch diameter 5.

The members 1 and 3 are L-shaped in cross section and between theconcentric parts a double row bi-axial radial ball bearing 8 has beenprovided, cooperating with races which are integral with the material ofthe members 1 and 3 respectively.

By means of the bolts 9 a brake disc 10 and a wheel 11 are secured tothe flange 2 of member 1. Flange 4 of member 3 can be secured in amanner not shown in FIG. I by means of bolts in holes 7 to wheelcarrying arms or similar members of the vehicle and the'calliper housingof the brake can be attached to similar holes 12, shown only in FIG. 2.

FIG. 2 clearly shows that the holes 12 cannot be used for securing awheel to the flange 4 and that only a calliper housing can be attachedto it.

FIGS. 3 and 4 relate to a driven embodiment, comprising an inner member13 with flange 14 and an outer member 15 with flange 16. Between the twomembers 13 and 15 a double row ball bearing 17 has been provided. i

In the inner member 13 the outer part of a homokinetic drive couplinghas been secured, for instance by means of welding.

The openings for the bolts are indicated at 19 and 20 respectively. Forthe calliper housing bores 21 are provided on flange l6.

The brake disc 22 can be secured to the flange l4- and flange 16 can besecured to an annular member 23 with ball joints for the connection withsuspension arms.

If one compares FIGS. 2 and 4 with each other it is clear that the onlyprincipal difference is formed by the coupling member 18 and it isfurther clear that if the unit according to FIG. 4 would be used for anon-driven wheel this would be possible without any more.

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the same type as shown in FIG. 4 with theonlt difference that instead of the coupling member 18 of FIG. 4 adifferent coupling member 24 has been secured to the inner rotatingmember 25 fitting upon a splint shaft end, to which end it has beenprovided with inner teeth and grooves 26. 27 is the stationary memberwhilst 28 is the sealing.

FIGS. 6 and 7 show a simple embodiment made from parts punched out of apiece of sheet metal, the inner part 29 and the outer part 30 then beingprovided with races, for instance for one row of balls.

As appears from FIG. 7 these inner and outer parts 29 and 30 are formedin such a way that they may contain bolt holes which have to attachthese parts. FIG. 7a shows an outer part 29a, which is essentiallysquare in side elevation with bolt holes 31 at the corners.

FIG. 7b shows an embodiment with four diametrically opposed ears 32 witha bolt hole 33 in each of them. In the embodiment of FIG. the outer parthas been given such radial dimensions that bolt holes 34 are provided inthe annular member 290.

As far as the inner part is concerned FIG. 7a shows a closed inner part30a with boltv holes 35, FIG. 7b shows an open inner part with inwardlydirected ears 30b with bolt holes 36 and FIG. 7c shows an annular innerpart 300 with bolt holes 37.

The inner and outer parts may be punched out of one piece of metal, therace surfaces being machined therein later-on.

- What we claim is:

l. A preassembled support for a disc-braked wheel of an engine propelledroad vehicle comprising inner and outer annular members relativelyrotatable about a central axis, said annular member having confrontingraceways, a plurality of rolling elements in the annular space betweensaid raceways, each of said members having a radially directed flange,first connecting means on the flange of one of said members fordetachably connecting the same to the vehicle, second connecting meanson the flange of said other member for connecting the wheel andbrakedisc, and a coupling member connected to said other annular member, thepitch diameter of the pitch circle of said rolling elements being atleast twice the overall axial width of said annular members, saidconnecting means being spaced closely to the pitch circle of the rollingelement whereby forces resulting from functioning of the brake areacting at substantially the same diameter and close to forces from thewheel and reaction forces from the vehicle.

2. A preassembled support as claimed in claim 1 for a driven wheel of anengine propelled road vehicle.

3. A preassembled support as claimed in claim 1 wherein said couplingmember is formed integrally with said other annular member.

4. A preassembled support as claimed in claim 3 wherein said otherannular member is the inner memher.

5. A preassembled support as claimed in claim 1 wherein said annularmembers are of L-shaped cross section and the connecting means comprisesa plurality of openings in the flanges located at approximately the samediameter, one of said annular members being stationary and havingadditional openings for the attachment of a stationary brake part.

6. A wheel bearing unit for use in a vehicle according to claim 1,characterized in that the flanges of both structural members extendparallel radially outwardly, the flange of the inner member having anumber of holes for the connection to the wheel and the flange of theouter member having holes for the connection to the vehicle at the samediameter and mutual spacing as the holes in the flange of the innermember as well as holes for the attachment of the stationary brake part,

which holes have a different spacing.

Patent No $757,883 Dated p ember 11 1973 PRINTER'S TRIM LI! 5Inventor-(S) ture Lenna-Tt erg It is certified that error appears in theabove-identified patent and that said Letters Patent arehereby correctedas shown below:

On the cover sheet insert: [30]. Foreign Application Priority DataFebruary '5, 1970 Netherlands 70.01649 Column 1, line 8, ."dirx ren"should read driven- Column 4, line 32, after "connecting" insert thesame to Signed and sealed this 19th day of November 1974.

(SEAL) Attest: I I

McCOY M. GIBSON JR. 0. MARSHALL DANN Attesting Officer v Commissioner ofPatents FORM Po-15 (10-69) v C USCOMM-DC 60376-8 69 7 U-S. GOVERPQIENTPRINTING OFFICE: g 9

1. A preassembled support for a disc-braked wheel of an engine propelledroad vehicle comprising inner and outer annular members relativelyrotatable about a central axis, said annular member having confrontingraceways, a plurality of rolling elements in the annular space betweensaid raceways, each of said members having a radially directed flange,first connecting means on the flange of one of said members fordetachably connecting the same to the vehicle, second connecting meanson the flange of said other member for connecting the wheel and brakedisc, and a coupling member connected to said other annular member, thepitch diameter of the pitch circle of said rolling elements being atleast twice the overall axial width of said annular members, saidconnecting means being spaced closely to the pitch circle of the rollingelement whereby forces resulting from functioning of the brake areacting at substantially the same diameter and close to forces from thewheel and reaction forces from the vehicle.
 2. A preassembled support asclaimed in claim 1 for a driven wheel of an engine propelled roadvehicle.
 3. A preassembled support as claimed in claim 1 wherein saidcoupling member is formed integrally with said other annular member. 4.A preassembled support as claimed in claim 3 wherein said other annularmember is the inner member.
 5. A preassembled support as claimed inclaim 1 wherein said annular members are of L-shaped cross section andthe connecting means comprises a plurality of openings in the flangeslocated at approximately the same diameter, one of said annular membersbeing stationary and having additional openings for the attachment of astationary brake part.
 6. A wheel bearing unit for use in a vehicleaccording to claim 1, characterized in that the flanges of bothstructural members extend parallel radially outwardly, the flange of theinner member having a number of holes for the connection to the wheeland the flange of the outer member having holes for the connection tothe vehicle at the same diameter and mutual spacing as the holes in theflange of the inner member as well as holes for the attachment of thestationary brake part, which holes have a different spacing.